Showcase: Assorted Treats

  • Soul of a Man by Blind Willie Johnson +

    Blind Willie Johnson ask in this song: Who am I? What does it mean to have a relationship with God? Read More
  • Christ is a Great Savior: a review of the movie Amazing Grace +

    Amazing Grace is a historical drama about William Wilberforce who was elected to British Parliament at the age of 21 Read More
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Publications

Coupla Things by Julie Moore

memeIt has occurred to me that maybe more people would read my blog if the posts were shorter. I'm not sure why it matters to me how many hits I get or whatever, but it IS something I notice, sadly. Are my entries just too long and rambling and detailed and full of tangents and all that? Is reading one of them like spending 30 minutes listening to my son talk about the playground wars? Should I just make my point and get the hell out of Dodge?

tissot-davids-valiant-men-600x311
David's motley crüe

I guess I could, but that wouldn't really be me. No... long, rambling, detailed, full of tangents are definitely words I'd use to describe my thought processes. So... it's like you're just peeking into my head... for a while.

That said... I thought I'd experiment with a shorter post... if nothing else, because I just wanted to point out a couple of things I tripped over in my "daily" Bible reading.

David and
Jonathan, BFFsDavidJonathan-1500s
See, right now I'm in I Samuel, which tells the story of Samuel, Saul and David. Samuel was a prophet who had to anoint Israel's first king. Saul was Israel's first king, but before the oil was dry on his forehead, he messed up... "royally," as they say. So Samuel is instructed by God to anoint David as king. The problem now is that Saul is still alive and royally pissed. He's always trying to nail David to the wall with a spear, so when David makes himself scarce Saul hunts him down like dog.

It's at this point that the writer of Samuel mentions this little tidbit: "All those who were in distress or in debt or discontented gathered around [David]..." (I Samuel 22: 2) I guess I noticed it because it went so beautifully with the previous post I wrote about Jesus being the King of Broken Hearts. I know David is NOT Jesus, but he's sort of the prototype... One of the things the Jews said about the Messiah was that he would be the Son of David. And to be literal, he was actually one of David's descendants – in addition to being the Messiah AKA the Son of David.

bruce-cockburnBruce Cockburn knows
who Jesus came for!
There are plenty of things in David's life that sort of pre-echo (I know that's not a word or a thing, but it works for me here!) Jesus's life... like his work as a shepherd, for instance.,, and the way he was rejected by his own family, and hunted down by the establishment... you get the picture.

So when I see this part about David attracting all the folks who are in distress and debt and all, well... I know that's me. And it's why I am attracted to Jesus, the friend of (according to Bruce Cockburn) "shepherds and street people, hookers and bums." Because "The Son of Man [another of the Messiah's monikers] came to seek and to save the lost." (Luke 9:10)

Okay, so moving right along... the next day I read something else that popped out at me. You see, in I Samuel 23, our hero David is still on the run from crazy King Saul when this happens: "And Saul's son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God." (v16) What I like about this is that it's a great description of what I perceive my job as a friend to be.

Haha! You're going to have to read thei.chzbgr
whole post and click on the link to
find out what this has to do with anything!
When my friends are down, it's not my job to fix everything, or to tell my freaked out friend, "You can do it!" Although this advice can be helpful in some cases (as in this charming song on a video that we bought my son when he was 2 – and if you neglect to click on this link, you will most assuredly be sorry), it still leaves the friend with the responsibility for "doing it."

Now, I don't have anything at all against hard work. I mean, I do it sometimes. But I'm thinking that rather than telling my exhausted friend, "You can do it!"... if I'm going to be a good friend like Jonathan, I'll be saying "God can do it!" Because He can.... And that's really what a desperate, in debt or discontented person needs to know.

(Okay, so... that wasn't so short. Maybe it's not in my skill set to be brief?)

http://www.bigmouthagain.com/2013/05/coupla-things.html

 

Reflections to Consider

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Publications

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Music

  • Jesus be the centre

    Center is a song that speaks of the essence of our life in Christ, and echoes the words the Christ Read More
  • I Lift My Hands

    A powerful hymn of adoration and praise Arkansas Gospel Mass Choir. This succinctly captures the joy of knowing our savior. Read More
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Audio & Video

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Favorites

  • Transforming this World: The Hope of Glory by NT Wright +

    Wright confronts the perspective that this world doesn’t matter, and that we live only to be in heaven. He shows Read More
  • What is Good in a World that Defies Hope: a talk by NT Wright +

    This is the second part of three talks by NT Wright at Harvard University in November, 2008 on the topic Read More
  • The Stream, the Lake and the River: NT Wright +

      Acts 2.1-21; John 7.37-39; a sermon at the Eucharist on the Feast of Pentecost, 11 May 2008, by the Read More
  • Jesus in the Perfect Storm by NT Wright +

    Zechariah 9.9-17; Luke 19.28-48; A sermon for Palm Sunday, April 17, 2011, In the University Chapel of St Salvator, St Read More
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Hidden Blessings

  • Christ is a Great Savior: a review of the movie Amazing Grace +

    Amazing Grace is a historical drama about William Wilberforce who was elected to British Parliament at the age of 21 Read More
  • Wilberforce, Hollywood's Amazing Grace, Charlotte Allen +

    William Wilberforce's relentless campaign eventually led the British Parliament to ban the slave trade, in 1807, and to pass a Read More
  • Making Beauty out of Ugly Things: Grace by U2 +

    Grace, she takes the blame She covers the shame Removes the stain It could be her name Grace, she carries Read More
  • The True Nature of Grace and Love: a movie review of the Soloist +

    The 2009 movie The Soloist is based on a book by the same name, written by Los Angeles Times columnist Read More
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